Indiana Supreme Court

In a 4-1 decision Monday, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled it is not inherently coercive for police to give conditional permission
to step out of a vehicle during a traffic stop, subject to the motorist’s consent to a pat-down search.

An Indiana statute and a 16-year-old Indiana Supreme Court decision interpreting that statute are under review as three teenagers
serving 45-year sentences asked the justices to overturn their convictions for felony murder.

A Vanderburgh County man convicted of the murders of his girlfriend’s eight- and five-year-old children after setting
fire to hishome in 2010 will remain on death row. The Indiana Supreme Court declined to reverse his convictions or revise
his sentence.

Community corrections officers should have cause before searching the home of someone who has signed a waiver of their Fourth
Amendment rights as a condition of probation, a lawyer argued recently before the Indiana Supreme Court.

The Indiana Supreme Court will review summary judgment in favor of healthcare providers sued for medical malpractice in a
stillbirth case as well as an adoption by a grandmother who claimed a 1997 conviction for neglect of a dependant should not
automatically bar her from adopting the children.

In dealing with an issue of first impression, the Indiana Supreme Court found a robbery charge should be dismissed because
it was filed outside of the statute of limitations. The state argued the defendant had concealed evidence of the crime, thus
tolling the five-year statute of limitations.

Believing that the Indiana Supreme Court should have taken a case involving the “disturbing trend” of alleged
prosecutorial misconduct, two justices dissented from their colleagues' decision to not accept the case.

The Indiana Supreme Court Thursday upheld the convictions of a man involved in a fatal drunken-driving crash. The defendant
was retried on all charges after a jury convicted him on some counts and deadlocked on others.

In her first State of Judiciary speech, Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush on Wednesday said the judiciary is “currently
working on the development of a business court model focused on complex commercial litigation,” and urged the General
Assembly to help fund the courts’ electronic filing initiative.

The sometimes-bitter litigation between a child’s adoptive parent and her grandparents who raised her from a young age
yielded a decision from the state’s highest court that family law experts believe may represent a significant shift
in adoption cases.

The trial court was correct to exclude evidence of specific instances from a woman regarding the truthfulness of her son,
the victim of a sex crime, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday. That evidence is prohibited by Indiana Evidence Rule
608.

Despite a series of court rulings upholding Indiana’s right-to-work law, unions are not stopping their efforts to have
the law overturned. Some opponents are considering petitioning for a review by the Supreme Court of the United States as well
as filing another lawsuit in Indiana state court.

The Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday stripped the adoption of a child by her stepfather, ruling that maternal grandparents
who had been primary caregivers early in her life were wrongly denied an opportunity to consent to or contest the adoption.

The Indiana Supreme Court plans to implement an evidence-based pretrial release program in Indiana, according to an order
signed by Chief Justice Loretta Rush Monday. In order to do so, a study committee will develop and implement at least one
pilot project.